Cheesecake Factory set for Penn Square
Upscale casual restaurant called coup for city
By Richard Mize, Real Estate Editor
The Cheesecake Factory is making mouths water in Oklahoma City — and business people smile — by quietly striking a deal with Penn Square Mall to build one of its popular “upscale casual” restaurants.
The restaurant is going up where big piles of red dirt, earth-moving equipment and a nondescript construction trailer behind a temporary fence are raising questions at Pennsylvania Avenue and NW 56. J.J. Chambless, city urban redevelopment specialist, confirmed Friday that the site is being prepared for The Cheesecake Factory.
No building permit has been issued, he said, so the specifics of the location could not be determined Friday. Repeated calls to The Cheesecake Factory corporate office in Calabasas Hills, Calif., went unreturned. Likewise, calls to Penn Square Mall’s management were not returned.
The arrival of the chain in Oklahoma City means more than the Tons of Fun Burger, shepherd’s pie, The Navajo sandwich — and three dozen kinds of cheesecake — for which the restaurant is known.
“It’s a significant coup for Oklahoma City,” said Mark Inman, a retail property specialist and first vice president of CB Richard Ellis-Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. “The Cheesecake Factory goes into highincome, high-demographic areas with stores with sales of $10 million a year. Oklahoma City has nothing like it in terms of sales volume.”
Inman, who was not involved in the transaction, said that Penn Square Mall and the established, high-income neighborhoods around it had to have been a significant draw for The Cheesecake Factory, which is “very selective” in the markets it enters. Penn Square Mall, he said, averages $500 per square foot per year in sales, the highest volume of any mall in Oklahoma — and significant for any mall anywhere.
The restaurant’s name is misleading to those who’ve never been in. Its menu has more than 200 items, including pizza, pastas, fish, steaks and chops and salads. The restaurant serves lunch, dinner and late dinner and offers a full bar.
“Most people think it’s just cheesecake, but it’s not,” said Mary Grace of Grace Commercial Real Estate, who laughingly noted that she lives within walking distance.
Grace said the location, on the west edge of the mall parking lot, will be a good one for the restaurant — although she noted that parking could be challenging during the holidays. A restaurant started from the ground up now could be expected to be open toward the end of the year.
“It’s a really good, strong chain. We should be excited,” Grace said.
No details about the restaurant could be determined. The Cheesecake Factory last opened a new restaurant in late March in Southlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth. That restaurant, the chain’s 105th, has 11,000 square feet and about 300 seats.
Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust that owns Penn Square Mall, would not comment on the mall’s operations specifically. But spokesman Les Morris said a popular restaurant such as The Cheesecake Factory adds substantial traffic to any mall, whether inside or on an outparcel. “They increase the number of visits, and it lengthens the time you stay if you sit down for a meal,” he said.
Upscale casual restaurant called coup for city
By Richard Mize, Real Estate Editor
The Cheesecake Factory is making mouths water in Oklahoma City — and business people smile — by quietly striking a deal with Penn Square Mall to build one of its popular “upscale casual” restaurants.
The restaurant is going up where big piles of red dirt, earth-moving equipment and a nondescript construction trailer behind a temporary fence are raising questions at Pennsylvania Avenue and NW 56. J.J. Chambless, city urban redevelopment specialist, confirmed Friday that the site is being prepared for The Cheesecake Factory.
No building permit has been issued, he said, so the specifics of the location could not be determined Friday. Repeated calls to The Cheesecake Factory corporate office in Calabasas Hills, Calif., went unreturned. Likewise, calls to Penn Square Mall’s management were not returned.
The arrival of the chain in Oklahoma City means more than the Tons of Fun Burger, shepherd’s pie, The Navajo sandwich — and three dozen kinds of cheesecake — for which the restaurant is known.
“It’s a significant coup for Oklahoma City,” said Mark Inman, a retail property specialist and first vice president of CB Richard Ellis-Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. “The Cheesecake Factory goes into highincome, high-demographic areas with stores with sales of $10 million a year. Oklahoma City has nothing like it in terms of sales volume.”
Inman, who was not involved in the transaction, said that Penn Square Mall and the established, high-income neighborhoods around it had to have been a significant draw for The Cheesecake Factory, which is “very selective” in the markets it enters. Penn Square Mall, he said, averages $500 per square foot per year in sales, the highest volume of any mall in Oklahoma — and significant for any mall anywhere.
The restaurant’s name is misleading to those who’ve never been in. Its menu has more than 200 items, including pizza, pastas, fish, steaks and chops and salads. The restaurant serves lunch, dinner and late dinner and offers a full bar.
“Most people think it’s just cheesecake, but it’s not,” said Mary Grace of Grace Commercial Real Estate, who laughingly noted that she lives within walking distance.
Grace said the location, on the west edge of the mall parking lot, will be a good one for the restaurant — although she noted that parking could be challenging during the holidays. A restaurant started from the ground up now could be expected to be open toward the end of the year.
“It’s a really good, strong chain. We should be excited,” Grace said.
No details about the restaurant could be determined. The Cheesecake Factory last opened a new restaurant in late March in Southlake, Texas, a suburb of Dallas-Fort Worth. That restaurant, the chain’s 105th, has 11,000 square feet and about 300 seats.
Simon Property Group, the Indianapolis-based real estate investment trust that owns Penn Square Mall, would not comment on the mall’s operations specifically. But spokesman Les Morris said a popular restaurant such as The Cheesecake Factory adds substantial traffic to any mall, whether inside or on an outparcel. “They increase the number of visits, and it lengthens the time you stay if you sit down for a meal,” he said.
